Les dernières vacances (The Last Vacation). 1948. France. Directed by Roger Leenhardt. Screenplay by Leenhardt, Roger Breuil. With Odile Versois, Michel François, Jean Lara. 35mm. In French; English subtitles . 95 min.
“It’s time to stop building films with Meccano pieces. Les dernières vacances is not prefabricated cinema,” wrote André Bazin at the release of the first—and for a long time only—film directed by the critic Roger Leenhardt. And it is indeed this inner freedom, at once joyful, sensual, and cruel, even on a very traditional canvas—a large family property about to be sold, teenagers awakening to love—that made this film an inspiration to the young editors of Cahiers du cinéma as they railed against the clichés of sterile, postwar mainstream French cinema. Courtesy FRL Productions and Les Archives françaises du film (Bois d’Arcy)